Mad Men

[junior94]

^^^ actually that reminds me, assuming we get nothing at all about Megan next week in the finale, will anyone be disappointed, did you think/hope that we'd have gotten something more about her in these final 7 episodes?

[TwoStep2888]

the episode that did focus on her was a big waste of time, so no

[BotheLaneFan]

I hope Don gets eaten by a shark.

[junior94]

A looooooooooong ass interview with Matthew Weiner all about the final season with a critic from NY Magazine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W-tlMf8AZE

[luke7]

No one is discussing the finale? Is there another thread?

For a dude going through uncertainty right now and some emotion stuff, the last scene was near perfect. An otherwise average finale was saved by the last fifteen minutes.

[dmbetc]

That is how you wrap up a series. Very well done. Sad to see this end.

[dmbetc]

looks like we came in at the same time, I too was shocked that no one had said anything.

[luke7]

If Peggy did partner with Joan, I would watch that series.

[keithcoldroses]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msbfN81Gm0#t=22

Awesome ending.

[dmbetc]

Originally Posted by luke7

If Peggy did partner with Joan, I would watch that series.

Absolutely!

[dmbbearcat]

Beautiful ending to what I believe is the greatest TV drama ever.

[Lee3691]

So here's what I thought of the finale without reading anyone else's views and only having discussion with my wife....but I really liked the finale. So many good & great TV shows have such ambitious and crappy finales (cough..Seinfeld..cough..Lost..cough..HIMYM), it's great to see a show not trying to change television, but just end the show on the right terms. Just about all these characters we've been interested in had breakthroughs, but it's not happily ever after on everything. I do think Don became more involved in the kids lives, I do think Peggy had a child and I do think Roger stayed longer than we all expect with his french (Canadian) love. My 2 cents..

[AlpineValley804]

Anyone have an upload of the final scene? My DVR cut off right at the beginning of the coke ad.

[TwoStep2888]

Originally Posted by AlpineValley804

Anyone have an upload of the final scene? My DVR cut off right at the beginning of the coke ad.

they just play the ad and go to credits, nothing else

[salrx95]

I am mostly satisfied at the ending.

Typical Don. He figured something out at the end and then went back and created one of the biggest ads ever, for Coke. It did seem, too, he was going to be a bigger part of kids' lives, which is good.

Speaking of his youngest, I finally realized yesterday he was the kid who played Abel in SOA. Maybe I just never paid attention to him until yesterday but I was like, hey that's Abel.

Speaking of Coke, I was definitely annoyed Joan did some but was glad that she dumped that ahole and was starting her own business. A Joan and Peggy spinoff would be welcomed...."Better call Joan & Peggy" anyone??

Overall, a decent finale. They aren't always great but I am good with it.

[thebridge15]

decent finale. could have done without the little "last looks" montage and I don't really get why they had to be ambiguous on whether don came up with the ad or not

great moments: peggy and pete, peggy and stan, don and betty, and that random guy's monologue

[UNC41]

That was a really good finale. The ambiguous ending kept it from being great though. Weiner has spent the past eight years obsessing over every minute detail so that the audience saw the exact story he was trying to tell. While I believe Don went on to develop the Coke campaign, the open-ended conclusion felt like a cop out.

The back-to-back Don/Peggy and Peggy/Stan scenes were perfection.

[Julia Roberts]

It seemed very clear to me that Don came up with the ad. Him sitting on a hillside, then the smile then cut to the ad. I think showing him marching back into McCann saying, "Peggy, get your team together, I got an idea" between the smile and the ad would have cheapened the ending.

The scene with Peggy and Stan felt a bit chick-flicky to me, otherwise I loved the episode.

[dre2142]

Originally Posted by Julia Roberts

It seemed very clear to me that Don came up with the ad. Him sitting on a hillside, then the smile then cut to the ad. I think showing him marching back into McCann saying, "Peggy, get your team together, I got an idea" between the smile and the ad would have cheapened the ending.

The scene with Peggy and Stan felt a bit chick-flicky to me, otherwise I loved the episode.

exactly.

[thebridge15]

I really liked how joan went with "holloway harris"

[Lee3691]

Originally Posted by thebridge15

I really liked how joan went with "holloway harris"

This last episode was maybe her most likeable episode in 5 seasons, as she changed into a very unlikeable character. That was a clever name.

In the same token, how sad was it that as soon as Don found out about Betty's lung cancer, he lit up, and even sadder the final scene for Betty was her smoking. I've got to think that being that the agency for the first sew seasons existed primarily because of cigarettes, it is just a cruel irony that Don's family had the ultimate tragic changes because of them as well.

[MOWJO8185]

It's very clear that he created the Coke ad. I think the question is whether you view that as a positive or negative development for Don. I think there's two legit interpretations - that he had a breakthrough, that being successful in the ad world and being happy in his life aren't mutually exclusive, and that he went on to be a more present father, more at peace, etc. And then that all he got out of his experience was an idea for another good ad, and he's basically going to return to the exact same life. We've seen him have moments that felt like a breakthrough previously, and they have never stuck - he always backslides.

[keithcoldroses]

Originally Posted by MOWJO8185

It's very clear that he created the Coke ad. I think the question is whether you view that as a positive or negative development for Don. I think there's two legit interpretations - that he had a breakthrough, that being successful in the ad world and being happy in his life aren't mutually exclusive, and that he went on to be a more present father, more at peace, etc. And then that all he got out of his experience was an idea for another good ad, and he's basically going to return to the exact same life. We've seen him have moments that felt like a breakthrough previously, and they have never stuck - he always backslides.

well said

this is my interpretation as well.

[junior94]

My god. I've got made fun of plenty in the Game Of Thrones thread for not correctly understanding things, and rightly so, but I've stunned myself here of what a moron that I am. This connection of Don being the one who comes up with the famous Coke ad -- I didn't put that together AT ALL. I don't know, I guess I was thinking in the moment Weiner put that there as a capper because the show was in the backdrop of the advertising world, and it had a communal sort of theme with where we last see Don. but no I didn't even remotely make that connection, suggesting he thought of it. I swear to god I really must have undiagnosed ADD or something

having said that, I liked the Peggy/Stan thing a lot, that felt very natural for them. Their banter's been one of my favorite things of the last few seasons, and as I've said before Stan was probably my favorite minor character.

and man I wonder how much that one last shot of Pete and Trudy added to the budget. I kinda figured there might've been at least a little bit more to it, bothering to get the plane there and all.

[RJP2741]

My interpretation landed more on the idea that advertising was Don's identity at the end of the show. The last few episodes followed him on his cross country trip clearly searching for his identity (whether it be his old one (Dick), his current one (Don) or a new one (car mechanic in Utah), and we saw them all not work for one reason or another. He's not really family to the real Drapers. Betty and Sally both rejected him. Peggy is the only one Don talked to in the last 3 episodes who actually wanted him to come back. I think his epiphany is more or less than advertising is who he is and that's the only thing that he's ever really loved or made him happy. And I don't think that means that ALL he is going to do is work now, he'll still fuck around, he'll still occasionally be a father to Sally, Bobby, and Gene, he'll still drink to excess. But I don't think he's going to be confused about who he really is. He won't have any more delusions of getting married, or trying to get custody of the kids because he feels like he's supposed to. He'll do things to pass the time and experience things to influence his advertising.

Overall I didn't love the Don storyline over the last few episodes. I have a real problem with spending half of the finale of a 7 season show with a bunch of random characters we've never seen before. I haven't really been on board with the cross-country trip. Everything that happened in NY I loved though. Joan's arc this season was amazing, I'm glad they finally gave her a real storyline and it didn't disappoint. I'm happy Peggy got the all around happy ending that she deserved. I really thought Roger was going to die before the end of the show, but happy to see he's still alive and kicking, for now. I never really cared for Pete, but that seemed like the logical conclusion for both him and Trudy.

The acting on this show is really something else. They're all amazing to watch and I'm sad we won't get to do that anymore.

[junior94]

well and for myself reading some other reviews of the finale elsewhere online, actually maybe I'm not giving myself such a hard time on not making the Don-Coke connection. Because for one thing as I was just reminded, in his last phone call to Peggy (every second of that was 100% brilliance, btw), Don seemed like the very idea of possibly going back into that world at all would make him vomit. So I couldn't necessarily see him back doing anything at the agency, no matter how good of an idea he thinks he's come up with.

[junior94]

and forgot this little nugget: anyone else notice who the actress was playing that one sort of 'leader' at the commune? 80's Supergirl herself, Helen Slater. I mean she doesn't have this listed on her IMDB (yet), but I'm fairly certain it was her.

[Lee3691]

Guy who actually created famous Coke Ad stopped watching Mad Men after 2 seasons: http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/18/medi...html?iid=HP_LN

[RJP2741]

Originally Posted by junior94

well and for myself reading some other reviews of the finale elsewhere online, actually maybe I'm not giving myself such a hard time on not making the Don-Coke connection. Because for one thing as I was just reminded, in his last phone call to Peggy (every second of that was 100% brilliance, btw), Don seemed like the very idea of possibly going back into that world at all would make him vomit. So I couldn't necessarily see him back doing anything at the agency, no matter how good of an idea he thinks he's come up with.

Frankly, that sounded like a suicide call when I watched it. It got me thinking we might see Don die before the end of the episode when he was on the phone iwth her.

[sheldonlevene]

Originally Posted by Lee3691

Guy who actually created famous Coke Ad stopped watching Mad Men after 2 seasons: http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/18/medi...html?iid=HP_LN

Boy that was a riveting interview.